Hot and Steamy Read Free Page A

“I know you’re more comfortable with cat-burglary, unless you’ve retired since Lithveria, but this will be an easy job. Your piece is £50,000. For an evening, that’s not bad.”
    She brushed with renewed vigor. “Acceptable. Why him?”
    â€œLink in a chain.”
    Virginia’s lips pursed. “Assuming my split is half, you’d have to convince him that you’ve got at least £100,000. The chip was a nice start.”
    â€œHe has his convincers, I have mine.” Chance withdrew a small velvet sack from his pocket. The contents sparkled and rustled as he poured them into his left palm. With a magician’s flourish, he let the ruby and diamond necklace dangle from his hand.
    Her eyes widened. Her voice dropped to a reverent whisper. “The Queen of Hearts.”
    â€œYou’ve seen it before?”
    â€œNot seen, but every woman in the world knows it. A one-hundred-fifty-carat, pigeon-blood Ceylonese ruby, heart-shaped, surrounded by a dozen thirty-carat diamonds, all set in white gold. Napoleon designed it for his Empress, basing it on tomb paintings of a necklace Pharaoh Seti I looted from Kadesh.” She stared at the necklace in the mirror. “That one was lost to antiquity. The Napoleonic necklace belongs to an American industrialist, Theodore Caine.”
    Chance crossed to her, staring down at her reflection. He looped the necklace about her throat as she pulled her hair up. The ruby, darker than her rose-petal nipples, nestled between her soft breasts. Her hair spread into a veil against her back as a hand came up, trembling, to touch the stone. Her fingers drew back quickly, as if it were molten, and then pressed to it again.
    â€œHow did you . . . ?”
    â€œSteal it?” Chance rested his hands on her shoulders. “I’ve not your skill for that sort of thing. I had this one manufactured. Its appearance should be enough for Trent to bring the real one out of hiding.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYour blush betrays you, Virginia.” Chance kissed the top of her head. “Caine became overextended. He is using Trent as an agent to secure financing from the Rothschilds. The Queen of Hearts is meant as collateral of sorts. I don’t know how you learned Trent had it, but I know you wished to steal it.”
    â€œTrent is a fool, but not utterly stupid, curse my fortune.” Her blue eyes met his in the looking glass. “He has it locked away in the vault of the Royal Bank of Monaco.”
    â€œAnd this will draw it out.”
    Her hands came up, covering his. “And how shall we free him of it?”
    â€œYou work your swindle just as you planned. Leave everything else to me.”
    Her smile grew, as did the pressure of her hands on his. How simple a thing it would have been to run his hands slowly down over her alabaster flesh. His thumbs would brush the ruby as his fingers caressed her nipples. She would draw him down into a kiss. He would fill his hands, squeezing firmly, his tongue seeking hers. She would turn on the bench to face him. Her robe would slip to the floor, seconds before she knelt on it. Those blue eyes looking up at him, at one moment widely innocent, in the next devilishly lusty.
    He wanted that. He wanted it very badly. Memories stirred him, warming his flesh. His body reacted and she could feel it against her back. Her hands became more insistent, her reflected expression pleased. She wanted it, too. She remembered; she had to remember. They had lost themselves in each other for too brief a time. It almost seemed as if it hadn’t happened, and this would be their chance to prove it had.
    And yet, because she wants it, I cannot.
    Chance reluctantly slipped his hands from beneath hers.
    Her hands fell to modestly censor her reflection. Her eyes filled with confusion. “I hurt you terribly, didn’t I? I’m horrible, I know it.” She raised her brush to smash the